As Long As They Can Send Their Kids Elsewhere

In a Letter to the Editor in today's Daily Times, Chester Upland union leader Gloria Zoranski argues for more funding from the state to support the district.

She closes her plea with this:

I urge Gov. Corbett and Secretary Tomalis to resolve this crisis, invest in Chester Upland’s public schools, and ensure that the students of our community receive the public education to which they are entitled.

Given that fact that a disproportionate percentage of public school teachers send their own kids to private schools why is it so important that students of any community receive a "public education" as opposed to say, a good, rock solid, competent education?

More and more low-income families are choosing charters, religious and private schools when they have the opportunity to do so. When they do they are just following the example of public school teachers.

According to 2004 study by the Thomas Fordham Institute...

In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.

I haven't seen a more recent study, but it's hard to believe that those numbers have changed drastically in the last few years, unless it's thanks to the closing of a good number of Catholic schools. It's not as if public schools in those cities have become noticeably better. I guess my question for Ms. Zoranski is what percentage of Chester Upland teachers allow their own kids to Chester Upland's schools? I doubt she knows. I doubt she wants to know.

When factoring the percentage of C-U teachers who send their children to C-U schools, as opposed to private schools, let's also factor in the percentage of C-U teachers who live in the school district. If a C-U teacher lives in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, and sends his/her children to a W-S school, while it is a public school it still isn't a C-U school. The most fair telling would be the percentage of children being parented by C-U teachers and administrators who are being sent by them to C-U schools. Maybe the C-U teachers' union can provide that information? Just wondering...